It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas....
By: ZLizabeth
THERE WILL BE AN EPILOGUE! HOWEVER, THIS IS THE SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER! PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE REVIEW! THIS STORY WILL PROBABLY ONLY BE VISIBLE AND IN THE FAVORABLE PART OF REVIEWING FOR (MIN) TWO MORE WEEKS! SO PLEASE REVIEW! IT WOULD REALLY MAKE ME VERY HAPPY! VERY VERY HAPPY! HEY, A LOT OF YOU ARE WRITERS! YOU KNOW HOW A REVIEW FEELS! MY GOAL THIS WEEK IS TO REVIEW AT LEAST TEN STORIES! AND IF I SEE YOUR NAME, I'M PROBABLY GOING TO REVIEW YOURS! (YES, THAT WAS A BRIBE. I AM SHAMELESS!)
In response to many a review, I know I beg. I will beg and beg and beg and, eight reviews to one chapter in about three days was pretty GOOD, so I will continue to beg! Thank you all again for such wonderful reviews....
AND TO DEEANNE...
We all know that Rory likes Jess NOW in the show, yet she does find it hard to let go of Dean. I think that in five years the pain of losing your first love could still exist. Jess would probably understand that, and I think that seeing Rory hurt would hurt HIM, so he would jump after her. He always jumps after her, even after she is all weepy over Dean (that is, until along came a Shane). And I will sort out everything so that it's clear to all that Rory DID NOT pick Dean, don't worry....
Rory's knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel. The deja vu of the day was close to driving her insane. Dean and Jess fighting. Jess running after her. Jess and her in a car. None of these were memories of much pleasantries.
Add to that they were lost. And it was her fault.
He hadn't tried to get her to speak. They had been driving and driving and it was a silent night in the Gilmore jeep. She was so mad at him for what he did. Dean had been hovering on the edge since the beginning. And Jess had finally pushed him over. She would have been happy of this earlier. But she had decided about five hours ago that she wanted to make her marriage work. She had loved Dean, and Dean had loved her, and she had been truly happy with him... once. If they were married, there had to still be something there. She was going to find that spark and blow on it until it lit a fire. This was like five years ago when she couldn't see what was staring her in the face.
Yes, she was sure she loved Dean. Of COURSE she loved Dean.
Of course that was before Jess came and stomped on the spark.
So why was she in a car with him? Driving away from her husband when she should be with him, starting over, soothing his fears? She loved HIM, after all.
She was with Jess in her mothers car on a road that could've been in Canada for all she knew of their location.
Oh yes, she loved Dean. She knew she loved Dean. It was perfectly right that she told Dean she loved him, because she did love him. She did. Yes, she loved him. He was her husband, after all. Why wouldn't she love her husband?
"Rory..." came the voice next to her.
"Don't say anything to me, Jess," she said evenly. Calm and cool. She wasn't going to explode. That would start a fight. And what she wanted now was to put distance between them. And every fight she'd had with Jess had led her closer to him.
"I won't after this, I promise."
"What is it, then?" trying to make her voice as stone like as possible.
"You see, the car..."
She was thrown back into her seat as the wheels grabbed onto the concrete and the engine shut off.
"Is out of gas," she finished.
She opened the door and jumped out. He followed her wordlessly. They each went in opposite directions down the road and called out, searched the night for signs of life. She felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she felt as the wind froze them on her skin. It was colder here. She rubbed her arms and wished that she'd taken the time to pack before she ran away.
Jess came up behind her and slipped his jacket over her shoulders. She took it without and word and looked up at him. He was staring off into the woods.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
"We are going to talk."
She glared at him. He ignored the glare and sat down on the hard, cold ground. She reluctantly sank to eye level.
"Where should we start?" she asked.
"Why you didn't tell me that you were married," he was looking straight at her and she tried to focus on exactly what reason she could make up for not telling him that would sound reasonable. She shifted uncomfortably.
"We're in the middle of some highway... maybe we should..."
"Start somewhere else? All right. Why did you marry Dean?"
"Now that one isn't any of your business," she snapped, silently thanking anyone from making him switch topics.
"To bad for me. Tell me."
"No."
"Rory, we are desperately lost in the middle of no where. Now, if we both get eaten by bears, won't you be happy that you died with that terrible weight off your chest?" sarcastic voice.
"It's not a terrible weight why I married Dean. Why would it be a terrible weight?" on afterthough she barked, "and we aren't going to be eaten by bears,"
"Okay, we'll starve to death."
"We're not going to starve."
"Get run over by a car?"
"No."
"Die of boredom?"
"You have a book in your pocket," she leaned forward and tapped it.
"Ah-ha. We'll kill each other in hopes of solving all our problems."
"How would that solve our problems?"
"You won't have someone breathing down your neck while you read the book. And I have this strange feeling you really want to kill me," she tried to intensify your glare, "yes, for some reason your beautiful eyes seem to be sending that message."
"You're off topic, Mr. Mariano."
"This is more fun than talking about serious stuff."
"Good. Then we can make you suffer."
"All right. Why'd you marry Dean? Why didn't you tell me you did?"
She looked away, "I married Dean because I loved him."
"Right."
"Please. Like you know anything about how I felt for Dean. You were gone for a year. I did get a chance to change in that time."
"You told me it wasn't working out."
"And then it did over the course of the year."
"Did he cry when you dumped him?"
"I didn't dump him."
"You did. And then he panicked and proposed."
"That is NOT true! We got married during college!"
He smiled, "so he wanted to keep you to himself, so he proposed, and you were forced to leave your school."
"Wrong," she lied.
"Well, I went back to New York and became a reporter."
"You went back to New York and moved in with a senior platinum blonde."
He looked at her. She put a hand to her mouth then crumpled into the road.
"And I spent my whole time there Writing To Rory," he said softly.
All she wanted to do was melt. She wished fiercely for the powers of the Wicked Witch of the West... and then she wished for rain.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth Jess."
"Sorry, schmorry. Why's the question. That's interrogative. Explain. No yes or no."
"I was afraid that you'd leave," she said quickly and loudly.
If a bear was to eat me now, I'd be happy I said that.
He didn't speak for a while, "I wasn't going to."
"Not until you found out I was married."
"Maybe it would've been different if you'd told me in the beginning."
"I'm sorry, okay?"
"Whatever."
She frowned, "I can't get two whatever's in one day. That's just not fair!"
"Well, Rory, a lot of things aren't fair!"
She stood up and marched to the jeep. She pulled the door open, jumped inside, and slammed it.
He stared at the door for a while. Then he walked to the jeep and climbed in. She was lying across the back seat, asleep and shivering. He threw a blanket (so conveniently stashed under his seat) over her and tried to find a comfortable way to sleep on the seat. He fell asleep during his trials.
She woke up and dropped the corner of blanket she was holding. Wiping her eyes, she rose slowly and hit her head on the jeep.
"I didn't used to be that tall," she mumbled, falling out of the back seat and wrapping the blanket around her as she stumbled out of the jeep. Jess was up and about, leaning against the back of the car eating a sandwich. He handed her one and she took it and bit out of the side before speaking.
"Where'd you find this?"
"Trunk."
"Not sure I if I should eat it."
"Give it to me than. I'm famished."
She woke up and protectively clenched her food, "nuh-uh. The man gives the lady his sandwich, that's what is says in 'Essential Etiquette of Being Lost on the Road with Someone You Are Fighting With.'"
He stared at her for a second, "I never read it."
"You should."
"Since I've never read it I am in no way entitled to forfeit my sandwich."
"Half of it."
"No."
"One third."
"Doesn't it say somewhere in that book of yours that to get lost on the road with someone you're fighting with is a stupid thing to do because if you're fighting they are most likely not going to readily give up their sandwich to the person they are fighting with?"
"Ahh. So you're trying to confuse me. You can't confuse a Gilmore."
"No."
"Can I please have just a bit of your sandwich?"
"No."
"Okay, you either give me sandwich or you give me coffee."
He disappeared into the jeep for a few seconds and came out holding a bottle of something. It was unlabeled and she suspiciously sipped it. Under normal circumstances she would've inquired as to it's contents, but a caffeine-deprived Gilmore is an unpredictable force.
The taste arrived in her mouth and her deadened taste buds screamed for her to shove the horrendous thing out of her mouth. She most happily spit it out at it's supplier.
Jess, drenched in orange juice, simply looked at her.
"What is this?" she demanded, tossing the bottle in his direction and not caring as more splashed out and hit him.
"It's called juice. You should try it sometime."
"Juice. Not an experience I care to repeat. I thought I'd made it clear before that..."
He rolled his eyes and interrupted, "these are the only clothes I have."
"Punishment for decieve-ment."
She opened the jeep door and went in, but not before giving him a devilish smile.
The light flickered again. In the woods. He wouldn't have noticed it, maybe it wasn't there... but there it was again.
"Jess!" Rory called.
He was embarrassed by how quickly he dashed to her side. But the door was open and he found a hysterical Rory, hands slapping the steering wheel.
"Jess! We have no food! No food and no gas and no anything! We're going to die!"
"We're not going to die, Rory. Someone is going to drive along this road and..."
"We're going to starve! Or get eaten by BEARS! Or kill each other! What if we kill each other and go insane..."
"Wouldn't it be the other way around?"
"...and grow our hair down our knees and don't bathe and have black teeth and long yellow fingernails and live in the woods and make a home out of the jeep and become the hermits of nowhereroad!"
"They could write a book about us."
"And we'll die and no one will know about us!"
"Did you have big dreams in mind?"
"You know I did! This is all..." she looked around and her flashing eyes fell on him, "your fault! It's all your fault!"
"How so?" he had to keep calm. Maybe he could make Rory shut up if he just kept his head. Two panicking people would not do much good.
"You made my life go bad!"
"Your life isn't something that I can just completely alter. It's like milk. If it's left out to long, it's going to go bad eventually."
"I was fine 'til you came along! I had a nice, steady, routine," she was taking breaths now. Her hands had stopped flailing, "and then you come and decide that my life isn't bad enough. You decide that you have to ruin my marriage."
"Rory, no one deserves that kind of marriage. You're not making sense."
"I am too making sense!" she stamped her foot on the jeep floor so hard that the snowman sitting on the dashboard shook, "Dean and I were fine. We weren't star crossed lovers, but we were just fine."
"You were miserable."
"I WAS FINE!"
"Then why did you lie to me?"
She started crying and made a small choking noise before inching away from him into the passenger seat, "I don't want to talk to you anymore."
"Rory..."
She stepped lightly out of the car and walked down the road. He exhaled. She turned around, most likely to give him a 'what have you done to me?' guilt-trip-ing, pitiful look. He didn't give her the opportunity.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her off the road, then down a slope into the woods.
She didn't bother to ask where they were going. She allowed him to pull her limp body along with him through the trees and branches. She felt numb and barely noticed the stinging slap of the dead twigs.
He stopped running abruptly at the base of the slope and she fell into his back. He pulled her up by the wrists and placed her in front of him. His chin rested on the top of her head and he placed his hands over her eyes. Her eyelashes brushed against his palms and he began to walk forward, forcing her to stumble blindly and finally cry out in exasperation,
"Where are we?"
He removed his hands.
She caught her breath at the sight before her.
It was an old cabin, the window panes falling out of the logs and the glass shattered. There was a white sign hanging over the door that read, "Holiday 24/7", and a few christmas lights hung in the windows. The snow wouldn't fall here for another week, so the panes of glass were sprayed with fake snow that was peeling off and had arranged at the base of the cabin in a sloppy pile. Through the windows was a diner, lit with a soft and sickening yellow candlelight color. A giant christmas tree sat in the corner, overly decorated with tinsel and lights and ornaments. There were flickering christmas lights hung around and inside the diner, and a huge bunch had been thrown over the "Holiday 24/7" sign stuck in the ground a few feet away.
Laughter drifted out from inside.
She looked up at Jess. But he simply gave a mock bow, pushed open the screen door, and pointed a hand inside.
Rory looked up at him and made a slight sound of protest. He shrugged and walked in, and she dashed in after him before the door swung shut behind them.
The scrambled words of a christmas carol burst in their ears. An old radio seemed to be the source of the noise, and it was blaring out static. The only legible sounds were the words "christmas" and "year".
They wandered farther into the place that seemed to be a living, breathing, Hallmark card gone bad. Several plastic Santa's with jiggling bellies adorned the corners and a life-size glass reindeer with a blinking red nose sat in front of the kitchen. Under the tree were gnomes wearing Santa hats and turned up shoes, a present rocking unsteadily in their outstretched hands. Once she got closer, Rory could see each present was wrapped in Happy Birthday wrapping paper.
She slowly turned to Jess, "this is the most hideous diner I have ever been to."
She then eagerly sat down at one of the picnic tables.
"I know," he smiled, "Luke would've had a heart attack at it's pure cheesiness."
"How did you find this place?" she asked suspiciously.
"I saw lights from the road and I was sick of being lost," he smiled again and passed the menu from across the table. Red and green with caroling and frightening cabbage patch-like children painted at the top.
In an instant, two elderly people dressed like elves were at the table. They sang a chorus of "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" and bowed, time enough for the two guests to see that, under the sagging hats, were two women with smiling faces.
"It truly is, isn't it?" one remarked to the other as soon as they'd finished, "I mean, beginning to look a lot like Christmas." She turned to address Jess and Rory, "the customers start pouring in around this time of year, they won't come when it's not Christmas, they say that it's not genuine enough. Well, Jenny and I decorated this place ourselves, and if it isn't genuine enough for the mess of people that live around here, that's their problem. But you're here, and only at the beginning of winter. You're such darlings. No charge for our first customers of the season!" she cried, clapping her frail hands. Rory couldn't help but smile.
"Thank you..." she began to decline, but was interrupted.
"It's our pleasure, dearie," the other one said, waving off her remark with a toss of her 'beringed' fingers, "we do love seeing young couples. Warms our hearts."
Neither of them assured Ms. Jenny that she was right.
But neither of them corrected.
After ordering the only seemingly appetizing thing on the menu (two cokes), Rory laid her hand on top of Jess'.
"Thank you... for this sickening place, and for being here."
He didn't look at her, "this menu sounds like you cooked it," he remarked as his eyes rapidly scanned the items.
"Seriously. Thanks."
He looked up, "you're welcome, Rory."
The two "elves" began to carol, as Rory Gilmore and Jess Mariano sat across from each other at a picnic table in a deserted diner in a place they were soon to discover the name of.
And so it was to the tune of "Jingle Bells" that their lives abruptly righted themselves, and to the same tune that they finally - without words - admitted what had been on their minds for a very long time.
Almost six years, in fact.
****Okay, now, you must tell me what you think. I was away all weekend last weekend so I didn't get to review but starting TUESDAY I will be LA QUEEN DE REVIEWING! But please tell me what you thought of this chapter... good, bad, really bad, *hopeful* really good? Well, I'm fine with anything you say! I won't hate if you say it's bad... I'll love you for reveiwing it in the first place! And sorry it took me so long to update!
By: ZLizabeth
THERE WILL BE AN EPILOGUE! HOWEVER, THIS IS THE SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER! PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE REVIEW! THIS STORY WILL PROBABLY ONLY BE VISIBLE AND IN THE FAVORABLE PART OF REVIEWING FOR (MIN) TWO MORE WEEKS! SO PLEASE REVIEW! IT WOULD REALLY MAKE ME VERY HAPPY! VERY VERY HAPPY! HEY, A LOT OF YOU ARE WRITERS! YOU KNOW HOW A REVIEW FEELS! MY GOAL THIS WEEK IS TO REVIEW AT LEAST TEN STORIES! AND IF I SEE YOUR NAME, I'M PROBABLY GOING TO REVIEW YOURS! (YES, THAT WAS A BRIBE. I AM SHAMELESS!)
In response to many a review, I know I beg. I will beg and beg and beg and, eight reviews to one chapter in about three days was pretty GOOD, so I will continue to beg! Thank you all again for such wonderful reviews....
AND TO DEEANNE...
We all know that Rory likes Jess NOW in the show, yet she does find it hard to let go of Dean. I think that in five years the pain of losing your first love could still exist. Jess would probably understand that, and I think that seeing Rory hurt would hurt HIM, so he would jump after her. He always jumps after her, even after she is all weepy over Dean (that is, until along came a Shane). And I will sort out everything so that it's clear to all that Rory DID NOT pick Dean, don't worry....
Rory's knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel. The deja vu of the day was close to driving her insane. Dean and Jess fighting. Jess running after her. Jess and her in a car. None of these were memories of much pleasantries.
Add to that they were lost. And it was her fault.
He hadn't tried to get her to speak. They had been driving and driving and it was a silent night in the Gilmore jeep. She was so mad at him for what he did. Dean had been hovering on the edge since the beginning. And Jess had finally pushed him over. She would have been happy of this earlier. But she had decided about five hours ago that she wanted to make her marriage work. She had loved Dean, and Dean had loved her, and she had been truly happy with him... once. If they were married, there had to still be something there. She was going to find that spark and blow on it until it lit a fire. This was like five years ago when she couldn't see what was staring her in the face.
Yes, she was sure she loved Dean. Of COURSE she loved Dean.
Of course that was before Jess came and stomped on the spark.
So why was she in a car with him? Driving away from her husband when she should be with him, starting over, soothing his fears? She loved HIM, after all.
She was with Jess in her mothers car on a road that could've been in Canada for all she knew of their location.
Oh yes, she loved Dean. She knew she loved Dean. It was perfectly right that she told Dean she loved him, because she did love him. She did. Yes, she loved him. He was her husband, after all. Why wouldn't she love her husband?
"Rory..." came the voice next to her.
"Don't say anything to me, Jess," she said evenly. Calm and cool. She wasn't going to explode. That would start a fight. And what she wanted now was to put distance between them. And every fight she'd had with Jess had led her closer to him.
"I won't after this, I promise."
"What is it, then?" trying to make her voice as stone like as possible.
"You see, the car..."
She was thrown back into her seat as the wheels grabbed onto the concrete and the engine shut off.
"Is out of gas," she finished.
She opened the door and jumped out. He followed her wordlessly. They each went in opposite directions down the road and called out, searched the night for signs of life. She felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she felt as the wind froze them on her skin. It was colder here. She rubbed her arms and wished that she'd taken the time to pack before she ran away.
Jess came up behind her and slipped his jacket over her shoulders. She took it without and word and looked up at him. He was staring off into the woods.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
"We are going to talk."
She glared at him. He ignored the glare and sat down on the hard, cold ground. She reluctantly sank to eye level.
"Where should we start?" she asked.
"Why you didn't tell me that you were married," he was looking straight at her and she tried to focus on exactly what reason she could make up for not telling him that would sound reasonable. She shifted uncomfortably.
"We're in the middle of some highway... maybe we should..."
"Start somewhere else? All right. Why did you marry Dean?"
"Now that one isn't any of your business," she snapped, silently thanking anyone from making him switch topics.
"To bad for me. Tell me."
"No."
"Rory, we are desperately lost in the middle of no where. Now, if we both get eaten by bears, won't you be happy that you died with that terrible weight off your chest?" sarcastic voice.
"It's not a terrible weight why I married Dean. Why would it be a terrible weight?" on afterthough she barked, "and we aren't going to be eaten by bears,"
"Okay, we'll starve to death."
"We're not going to starve."
"Get run over by a car?"
"No."
"Die of boredom?"
"You have a book in your pocket," she leaned forward and tapped it.
"Ah-ha. We'll kill each other in hopes of solving all our problems."
"How would that solve our problems?"
"You won't have someone breathing down your neck while you read the book. And I have this strange feeling you really want to kill me," she tried to intensify your glare, "yes, for some reason your beautiful eyes seem to be sending that message."
"You're off topic, Mr. Mariano."
"This is more fun than talking about serious stuff."
"Good. Then we can make you suffer."
"All right. Why'd you marry Dean? Why didn't you tell me you did?"
She looked away, "I married Dean because I loved him."
"Right."
"Please. Like you know anything about how I felt for Dean. You were gone for a year. I did get a chance to change in that time."
"You told me it wasn't working out."
"And then it did over the course of the year."
"Did he cry when you dumped him?"
"I didn't dump him."
"You did. And then he panicked and proposed."
"That is NOT true! We got married during college!"
He smiled, "so he wanted to keep you to himself, so he proposed, and you were forced to leave your school."
"Wrong," she lied.
"Well, I went back to New York and became a reporter."
"You went back to New York and moved in with a senior platinum blonde."
He looked at her. She put a hand to her mouth then crumpled into the road.
"And I spent my whole time there Writing To Rory," he said softly.
All she wanted to do was melt. She wished fiercely for the powers of the Wicked Witch of the West... and then she wished for rain.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth Jess."
"Sorry, schmorry. Why's the question. That's interrogative. Explain. No yes or no."
"I was afraid that you'd leave," she said quickly and loudly.
If a bear was to eat me now, I'd be happy I said that.
He didn't speak for a while, "I wasn't going to."
"Not until you found out I was married."
"Maybe it would've been different if you'd told me in the beginning."
"I'm sorry, okay?"
"Whatever."
She frowned, "I can't get two whatever's in one day. That's just not fair!"
"Well, Rory, a lot of things aren't fair!"
She stood up and marched to the jeep. She pulled the door open, jumped inside, and slammed it.
He stared at the door for a while. Then he walked to the jeep and climbed in. She was lying across the back seat, asleep and shivering. He threw a blanket (so conveniently stashed under his seat) over her and tried to find a comfortable way to sleep on the seat. He fell asleep during his trials.
She woke up and dropped the corner of blanket she was holding. Wiping her eyes, she rose slowly and hit her head on the jeep.
"I didn't used to be that tall," she mumbled, falling out of the back seat and wrapping the blanket around her as she stumbled out of the jeep. Jess was up and about, leaning against the back of the car eating a sandwich. He handed her one and she took it and bit out of the side before speaking.
"Where'd you find this?"
"Trunk."
"Not sure I if I should eat it."
"Give it to me than. I'm famished."
She woke up and protectively clenched her food, "nuh-uh. The man gives the lady his sandwich, that's what is says in 'Essential Etiquette of Being Lost on the Road with Someone You Are Fighting With.'"
He stared at her for a second, "I never read it."
"You should."
"Since I've never read it I am in no way entitled to forfeit my sandwich."
"Half of it."
"No."
"One third."
"Doesn't it say somewhere in that book of yours that to get lost on the road with someone you're fighting with is a stupid thing to do because if you're fighting they are most likely not going to readily give up their sandwich to the person they are fighting with?"
"Ahh. So you're trying to confuse me. You can't confuse a Gilmore."
"No."
"Can I please have just a bit of your sandwich?"
"No."
"Okay, you either give me sandwich or you give me coffee."
He disappeared into the jeep for a few seconds and came out holding a bottle of something. It was unlabeled and she suspiciously sipped it. Under normal circumstances she would've inquired as to it's contents, but a caffeine-deprived Gilmore is an unpredictable force.
The taste arrived in her mouth and her deadened taste buds screamed for her to shove the horrendous thing out of her mouth. She most happily spit it out at it's supplier.
Jess, drenched in orange juice, simply looked at her.
"What is this?" she demanded, tossing the bottle in his direction and not caring as more splashed out and hit him.
"It's called juice. You should try it sometime."
"Juice. Not an experience I care to repeat. I thought I'd made it clear before that..."
He rolled his eyes and interrupted, "these are the only clothes I have."
"Punishment for decieve-ment."
She opened the jeep door and went in, but not before giving him a devilish smile.
The light flickered again. In the woods. He wouldn't have noticed it, maybe it wasn't there... but there it was again.
"Jess!" Rory called.
He was embarrassed by how quickly he dashed to her side. But the door was open and he found a hysterical Rory, hands slapping the steering wheel.
"Jess! We have no food! No food and no gas and no anything! We're going to die!"
"We're not going to die, Rory. Someone is going to drive along this road and..."
"We're going to starve! Or get eaten by BEARS! Or kill each other! What if we kill each other and go insane..."
"Wouldn't it be the other way around?"
"...and grow our hair down our knees and don't bathe and have black teeth and long yellow fingernails and live in the woods and make a home out of the jeep and become the hermits of nowhereroad!"
"They could write a book about us."
"And we'll die and no one will know about us!"
"Did you have big dreams in mind?"
"You know I did! This is all..." she looked around and her flashing eyes fell on him, "your fault! It's all your fault!"
"How so?" he had to keep calm. Maybe he could make Rory shut up if he just kept his head. Two panicking people would not do much good.
"You made my life go bad!"
"Your life isn't something that I can just completely alter. It's like milk. If it's left out to long, it's going to go bad eventually."
"I was fine 'til you came along! I had a nice, steady, routine," she was taking breaths now. Her hands had stopped flailing, "and then you come and decide that my life isn't bad enough. You decide that you have to ruin my marriage."
"Rory, no one deserves that kind of marriage. You're not making sense."
"I am too making sense!" she stamped her foot on the jeep floor so hard that the snowman sitting on the dashboard shook, "Dean and I were fine. We weren't star crossed lovers, but we were just fine."
"You were miserable."
"I WAS FINE!"
"Then why did you lie to me?"
She started crying and made a small choking noise before inching away from him into the passenger seat, "I don't want to talk to you anymore."
"Rory..."
She stepped lightly out of the car and walked down the road. He exhaled. She turned around, most likely to give him a 'what have you done to me?' guilt-trip-ing, pitiful look. He didn't give her the opportunity.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her off the road, then down a slope into the woods.
She didn't bother to ask where they were going. She allowed him to pull her limp body along with him through the trees and branches. She felt numb and barely noticed the stinging slap of the dead twigs.
He stopped running abruptly at the base of the slope and she fell into his back. He pulled her up by the wrists and placed her in front of him. His chin rested on the top of her head and he placed his hands over her eyes. Her eyelashes brushed against his palms and he began to walk forward, forcing her to stumble blindly and finally cry out in exasperation,
"Where are we?"
He removed his hands.
She caught her breath at the sight before her.
It was an old cabin, the window panes falling out of the logs and the glass shattered. There was a white sign hanging over the door that read, "Holiday 24/7", and a few christmas lights hung in the windows. The snow wouldn't fall here for another week, so the panes of glass were sprayed with fake snow that was peeling off and had arranged at the base of the cabin in a sloppy pile. Through the windows was a diner, lit with a soft and sickening yellow candlelight color. A giant christmas tree sat in the corner, overly decorated with tinsel and lights and ornaments. There were flickering christmas lights hung around and inside the diner, and a huge bunch had been thrown over the "Holiday 24/7" sign stuck in the ground a few feet away.
Laughter drifted out from inside.
She looked up at Jess. But he simply gave a mock bow, pushed open the screen door, and pointed a hand inside.
Rory looked up at him and made a slight sound of protest. He shrugged and walked in, and she dashed in after him before the door swung shut behind them.
The scrambled words of a christmas carol burst in their ears. An old radio seemed to be the source of the noise, and it was blaring out static. The only legible sounds were the words "christmas" and "year".
They wandered farther into the place that seemed to be a living, breathing, Hallmark card gone bad. Several plastic Santa's with jiggling bellies adorned the corners and a life-size glass reindeer with a blinking red nose sat in front of the kitchen. Under the tree were gnomes wearing Santa hats and turned up shoes, a present rocking unsteadily in their outstretched hands. Once she got closer, Rory could see each present was wrapped in Happy Birthday wrapping paper.
She slowly turned to Jess, "this is the most hideous diner I have ever been to."
She then eagerly sat down at one of the picnic tables.
"I know," he smiled, "Luke would've had a heart attack at it's pure cheesiness."
"How did you find this place?" she asked suspiciously.
"I saw lights from the road and I was sick of being lost," he smiled again and passed the menu from across the table. Red and green with caroling and frightening cabbage patch-like children painted at the top.
In an instant, two elderly people dressed like elves were at the table. They sang a chorus of "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" and bowed, time enough for the two guests to see that, under the sagging hats, were two women with smiling faces.
"It truly is, isn't it?" one remarked to the other as soon as they'd finished, "I mean, beginning to look a lot like Christmas." She turned to address Jess and Rory, "the customers start pouring in around this time of year, they won't come when it's not Christmas, they say that it's not genuine enough. Well, Jenny and I decorated this place ourselves, and if it isn't genuine enough for the mess of people that live around here, that's their problem. But you're here, and only at the beginning of winter. You're such darlings. No charge for our first customers of the season!" she cried, clapping her frail hands. Rory couldn't help but smile.
"Thank you..." she began to decline, but was interrupted.
"It's our pleasure, dearie," the other one said, waving off her remark with a toss of her 'beringed' fingers, "we do love seeing young couples. Warms our hearts."
Neither of them assured Ms. Jenny that she was right.
But neither of them corrected.
After ordering the only seemingly appetizing thing on the menu (two cokes), Rory laid her hand on top of Jess'.
"Thank you... for this sickening place, and for being here."
He didn't look at her, "this menu sounds like you cooked it," he remarked as his eyes rapidly scanned the items.
"Seriously. Thanks."
He looked up, "you're welcome, Rory."
The two "elves" began to carol, as Rory Gilmore and Jess Mariano sat across from each other at a picnic table in a deserted diner in a place they were soon to discover the name of.
And so it was to the tune of "Jingle Bells" that their lives abruptly righted themselves, and to the same tune that they finally - without words - admitted what had been on their minds for a very long time.
Almost six years, in fact.
****Okay, now, you must tell me what you think. I was away all weekend last weekend so I didn't get to review but starting TUESDAY I will be LA QUEEN DE REVIEWING! But please tell me what you thought of this chapter... good, bad, really bad, *hopeful* really good? Well, I'm fine with anything you say! I won't hate if you say it's bad... I'll love you for reveiwing it in the first place! And sorry it took me so long to update!